Bolivia: Morales is checked

After two years in power, President Evo Morales has a nation dividing into city and country, into the old Andean Altiplano and the rich oil and agro-industrial heartlands, and into indigenous peoples and mixed background people. And they won’t let him have the consensus he needs

Those on the left may often want to change the world without taking power, but Bolivia’s socialists have taken a different path. Evo Morales, the first indigenous Indian president in the Americas. came to power with ambitious plans to change Bolivian society at the end of a turbulent period in its history (1999-2005). When elected on 18 December 2005 with 53.72% of the vote, he promised to defend the rights of the indigenous Andean Indian population, denied since colonisation, to end 20 years of neo-liberal politics and to implement the October agenda, whose most significant aspects are the nationalisation of the gas and oil industries and the re-founding of the state based on a new constitution.

Since it came to power, his party – the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) – has been cautious in its economic policies for fear of provoking instability orchestrated by the economic elite. Whereas some ministries replaced most of their staff after the election, there have been almost no changes at the Department of Finance. The government’s overall approach to the economy has been pragmatic. It negotiated the end of the involvement of French company Lyonnaise des Eaux in La Paz’s water system in January 2007. But despite the announcement of the nationalisation of the petrochemical industry on 1 May 2006. it has guaranteed that Brazilian, Argentinian and Spanish multinationals can continue their activities.

Two years after coming to power, Morales finds himself in an impasse: his project for a new constitution faces fierce opposition and the rich oil and agro-industrial regions of the media luna. the economic heartland of the country, have declared their autonomy.

Most of MAS’s social reforms have been blocked in the Senate, where, in contrast to the lower house, the right has a majority. In November 2006 farming reforms only went through because several members of the opposition voted with the government. Approval of the renta dignidad, an old age pension, was (...)

Franck Poupeau is a member of the Institut Français d’Études Andines in La Paz and Hervé Do Alto is a doctoral student in political science at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Aix-en-Provence. The views expressed in the article are the authors’ own

Franck Poupeau

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Translated by George Miller

Franck Poupeau is a member of the Institut Français d’Études Andines in La Paz and Hervé Do Alto is a doctoral student in political science at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Aix-en-Provence. The views expressed in the article are the authors’ own

(1) Benito Juárez, a Zapotec, was president of Mexico from 1867 to 1872.

(2) Instead of nationalising, Morales has increased taxes on the multinationals and renegotiated their contracts. As a result, tax revenues from the gas and oil industries have gone from $300m in 2005 to $1.7bn in 2007.

(3) Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando are the four eastern departments of the country and together resemble a half-moon.

(4) The no vote was overwhelming in the departments of La Paz, Oruro, Potosi, Chuquisaca, and less pronounced in Cochabamba.

(5) The main opposition party Podemos won 28% of the vote in the presidential election of 2005, and 15% in the election of assembly members.

(6) Sucre is the constitutional capital of the country, but since the end of the 19th century and the federal war in which Sucre opposed La Paz, the latter has been the seat of government.

(7) Representing more than two-thirds of those who took part, but not two-thirds of all 255 eligible assembly members.